During a news conference that ended a short time ago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered a fairly long wind-up to his news: The state’s stay-at-home order would be extended to April 30. Schools and non-essential businesses – including bars and restaurants, which are closed to dine-in customers — also will remained closed until that date.

“Folks I know that this journey is an extraordinarily difficult one – personally, financially, emotionally,” Pritzker said. “The cascading consequences of these steps weigh on me every minute of every day. But as I’ve said since the beginning, my priority through each and every one of these decisions has been and continues to be saving as many lives as possible."

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Is April 30 a firm end to the statewide stay at home order? “(W)e don’t know when we’re going to peak – we don’t know when we’re going to come off that peak,” Pritzker told reporters.

The state today announced 937 new known cases of COVID-19 and 26 additional deaths in Illinois, marking 5,994 known infections and 99 dead since the outbreak started.

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Meanwhile, the finger-pointing has quietly begun as officials try to deal with a coronavirus outbreak at Cook County Jail on Chicago’s Southwest Side and the state’s prison system. It’s no surprise: Inmates share cells, toilets, dining facilities — you name it.

Some expedited releases have begun, but advocates say neither the state nor the county has pivoted fast enough in the face of the growing public health crisis, my Tribune colleagues Annie Sweeney and Megan Crepeau write.

In some non-coronavirus news, we have word that the city is close to picking a new top cop — a politically sensitive choice given that the city’s under a federal court to enact reforms amid criticism of racist and abusive policing practices. The Police Board will deliver the names of three finalists to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who will make her pick before the City Council votes.

The governor announced today that he’s extending his stay-at-home order through the end of April in hopes of stemming the spread of COVID-19.

The new order Pritzker said he’ll sign Wednesday would run through April 30 and bring Illinois in line with the latest recommendations from the federal government, the Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Jamie Munks report.

The governor’s order also means that public and private schools across the state will remain closed for another month. On Tuesday, districts were required to begin offering remote learning for their students.

While some models suggest the cases will peak some time in April, there’s just no firm date.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” Public Service Announcement may be the moment of levity we need: Have to say, itisn’t just funny, though. It’s clearly aimed at putting the privileged among us in check. No, the message is, boredom, pedicures and getting your roots done are not actual necessities that need to be addressed beyond the confines of home right now as the nation grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt has a story about the PSA, along with a video of it here. And the video also is a reminder about which side she’s on when it comes to Chicago’s deeply partisan baseball scene.

Now that we’re in for three more weeks of this, some fact-checking: The Better Government Association examines some false claims that that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is banning alcohol sales as part of his response to COVID19. Read the details and slowly exhale here.

Mayor Lightfoot doesn’t expect the city to have to lay off any workers as a result of coronavirus’s impact on the budget: The mayor hinted days ago that the stay-at-home order would last “deep into April” — clearly beyond the original deadline of April 7. And she’s been asked about what all of this means for municipal finances tax revenue expected to plummet with so many businesses closed.

“Our economy in this region is incredibly diverse, and if you look at how we have fared in other economic downturns, whether it’s 9/11, the Great Recession of 2008 or 2009, we’ve had some impact of course, but (we’ve) rebounded back very, very strong and well,” Lightfoot said. “For our city revenues, no one revenue stream is more than 13% and what we call the economically sensitive revenue streams, none of them in the aggregate add up to more than 25%.”

Preckwinkle explains why county’s hospital system will likely take a financial hit amid COVID-19 outbreak: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle expects “a profound impact” on the county hospital system’s budget as doctors stop performing profitable elective procedures in order to make more room for coronavirus sufferers.

The number of people without health insurance who need expensive intensive care is also expected to go way up in coming weeks, further hurting the bottom line for the Chicago area’s safety net health system, Preckwinkle said Tuesday.

“For our health and hospital system, we receive the most compensation for the elective surgeries that we do,” Preckwinkle said. Those are being halted because beds at Stroger Hospital and elsewhere are going to be needed as the number of patients with COVID-19 spikes.

How much it will hit the budget is unclear, Preckwinkle said. “I can’t tell you how much of a financial impact it will have, because we don’t know how long the pandemic will prohibit us from doing elective surgeries,” she said.

Meanwhile, Preckwinkle said the county medical staff remains concerned about the number of virus cases at Cook County Jail, where a field hospital has been set up in an area where boot camp sentences used to be carried out. (Read more on that below)

“The jail’s a petri dish,” Preckwinkle said, adding that she continues to work with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Chief Judge Tim Evans to lower the head count in the jail so that fewer people inside are exposed to the disease. There are about 5,000 inmates now, Preckwinkle said, and about a thousand more nonviolent offenders could be eligible for release soon. (John Byrne)

We’re not going to need a big boat: Lightfoot also said she doesn’t anticipate a large naval vessel on Lake Michigan, similar to what’s happening in New York, and that’s partly why officials are working to transform McCormick Place into a coronavirus hospital. (Gregory Pratt)

FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2016, file photo, mail-in ballots for the 2016 General Election are shown at the elections ballot center at the Salt Lake County Government Center, in Salt Lake City. Voter fraud is rare in the state and typically involves parents submitting ballots for children who are away from home serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the state's lieutenant governor said. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said voter fraud is usually the result of a misunderstanding of election laws, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Given fears over a resurgence in the fall of COVID-19, politicians and elected leaders have been talking about whether states need to expand or even pivot to total mail-in ballot voting systems.

“I’ve been an . . . advocate for mail-in ballots for a long time anyway,” Gov. Pritzker said this afternoon, when asked about expanding Illinois' mail-in system. “I do think we’re going to have to look at for the general election the idea that we may have to move to a significant amount or all mail in ballots or at least giving people the opportunity to do that. But it’s something we’re going to look at,” he said.

The legislature would have to make that decision, Pritzker said. And that brings about another complication: Bringing 177 members of the General Assembly together, not to mention smaller committee hearings, at a time when crowds and gatherings are being discouraged to avoid the spread of the disease.

Over the weekend, NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Vice President Joe Biden, front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, about whether the November election might need to be done via mail-in ballot.

Biden offered a similar response as Pritzker. “I think we should be looking to all-mail ballots across the board to begin with, because it’s an easier way for people to vote. But whether or not that’s required across the board in all 50 states and territories I’m not sure yet. ... But we should be beginning to plan that in each of our states,” he said during the interview on the program “Meet the Press.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether President Donald Trump favors such a plan.

The Chicago Police Board is scheduled to announce its three finalists for Chicago police superintendent during a special public meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner reported late yesterday afternoon. Lightfoot in turn is expected to eventually pick one of those candidates to be the city’s next top cop. Read his story here.

The mayor was asked during a news conference today whether she was committed to picking one of the three, she was somewhat noncommittal: “Well, I’ve got to see what the announcement is obviously, but that’s really up to the Police Board and we’ll respond once the names are made public."

Gorner notes that last month, sources told the Chicago Tribune that the board’s roster of 25 candidates had been whittled down to a handful of names, among them Sean Malinowski, a former Los Angeles Police Department official who has been a top consultant for the Chicago Police Department for the past few years; Ernest Cato, a CPD deputy chief; Kristen Ziman, chief of police in west suburban Aurora; and David Brown, an ex-Dallas police chief.

Two weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson penned a letter, then talked by phone with President Donald Trump about his concerns over what the head of Chicago-headquartered Rainbow Push Coalition feared would be a widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in the nation’s jails and prisons. He wanted the president to order testing at the jails, which see a revolving door of people who can bring the disease in and take it out, and whose facilities leave no room for social distancing.

Jackson said the president told him he would take the suggestions under advisement.

Now this: For more than a week, the number of infected detainees at Cook County Jail — where the largest chunk of the population is awaiting trial — has grown steadily: from two on Monday, March 23, to 17 on Wednesday, to 101 on Sunday, the Tribune’s Annie Sweeney and Megan Crepeau report.

Within the state prison system, officials reported that over four days, the combined number of staff and inmates who tested positive had jumped from six to at least 26. The first death of an inmate was announced Monday, a man who was being housed at Stateville Correctional Center. You can read the full story, which notes that officials are in uncharted territory, here.

What local officials have said in recent days: A potential disaster, as Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli put it. A huge problem, Sheriff Tom Dart added, noting, “There is no playbook here.”

Authorities are now confronted with how to strike a balance, Sweeney and Crepeau write. Which would better protect public safety: keeping people behind bars, or letting them out to join the public in isolation efforts to try and slow the escalating coronavirus emergency?

The court system: The chief judge of Chicago’s federal court announced Monday that jury trials will be canceled until at least June, explaining the coronavirus outbreak at this point makes that system “difficult or unsafe.”

Cook County court officials already had postponed a good chunk of criminal and civil operations through mid-April, but late yesterday a decision was made to extend that to mid-May. Chief Judge Tim Evans noted in a statement that while some hearings are being held via video conferencing, all proceedings would be using video no later than April 16.

In southeastern Illinois, prosecutors charged a man with coronavirus symptoms after he walked into a busy gas station store: ProPublica Illinois’ Jodi S. Cohen explains in a piece that the man had posted about his health on Facebook. Cohen writes: “The 36-year-old man, who had stopped in the store so his 4-year-old son could use the bathroom, was recognized by an employee who had gone to high school with him and saw his social media post. After the man left, the employee alerted her supervisor, who then called authorities." You can read the full story here.

More than 800 Chicago Police Department employees out sick Monday amid COVID-19 outbreak: The Tribune’s Gorner also has that story here.

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Just announced: City to provide hotel rooms for first responders — The Tribune’s Gorner notes that 274 hotel rooms will be available for Chicago’s paramedics, firefighters and police officers as a respite, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday.

The rooms will be provided by the Hotel Essex, at 800 S. Michigan Ave., the mayor said, speaking at a graduation ceremony for new Chicago Fire Department paramedics.

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“These rooms aren’t for first responders who are themselves sick," Lightfoot said. “We have hospitals for that. However, the reality is that they are coming in contact with the virus everyday and working long, hard hours. And some of them may prefer to stay downtown rather than going home to their spouse, kids or friends.” (Jeremy Gorner)

The General Iron Industries plant on the North Branch of the Chicago River in Chicago on Sept. 28, 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

He also notes: Mayor Lightfoot’s administration agrees that scrap yards can stay open, even though the city has cited General Iron with health code violations seven times since December. You can read the full story here.

General Iron’s take: The facility’s new owner warned last week of “dire consequences” if General Iron stopped shredding scrap metal, including a surge of appliances piled up in alleys and the lack of a market for low-income peddlers who line up daily next to semitrailers carrying wrecked vehicles.

Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.